Red Bull’s
ordeal
continues

Sebastian Vettel’s all-conquering team missed out on the first five hours of the opening day of the second series of testing before the 2014 season begins in Melbourne on March 16.

When the German world champion finally got their RB10 out on the circuit it lasted only 14 laps, his session brought to a premature end with an unspecified breakdown.

Their experience here mirrored the nightmare test they encountered in Jerez in Spain last month when they only mustered 21 laps over four days as they struggled to get to grips with the raft of new technical regulations.

Wednesday’s honours were taken by Hulkenburg, the German returning to Force India after a brief spell with Sauber, posting a quickest time of 1min 36.880 after completing 78 laps.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso (1:37.879) came in second with Lewis Hamilton (1:37.908) third in the Mercedes.